Metric or Imperial?

[EFX]

Storker, c'mon, give us a break. Most of us get it -- dive calcs in metric are easier than imperial. As NetDoc so succinctly wrote "Why bother?" and to which I might add "Who cares?". Those of us diving imperial have safe fun dives and amazingly we even manage to do some dive planning in that awful system. If it makes you happy, should we ever meet for a dive, I'll set my computer to metric and attach an SPG reading bar. Then after the dive we can laugh and argue why kjottkaker with espagnol is better than hamburgers with ketchup.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Storker, c'mon, give us a break. Most of us get it -- dive calcs in metric are easier than imperial. As NetDoc so succinctly wrote "Why bother?" and to which I say "Who cares?". Those of us diving imperial have safe fun dives and amazingly we even manage to do some dive planning in that awful system. If it makes you happy, should we ever meet for a dive, I'll set my computer to metric and attach an SPG reading bar. Then after the dive we can laugh and argue why kjottkaker with espagnol is better than hamburgers with ketchup.

Why bother? Because it's smarter. Who cares? Anybody who does a lot of Solo overseas dive travel outside US. . .

Does it matter in the US? Apparently not --Imperial Units (and English only). . .

 

[Peter69_56]

Its getting the feel and your head around it that's hard. Like when we changed from Pound, shillings and pence, to Dollars. First it was hard, but then you wonder why you used the original out dated system to begin with.

I simply couldn't think of going back to feet and inches and partial inches for measuring now.

However I do understand the argument that you have been trained with what you use, and its sure hard to change.

I am however glad we were forced by the government to change from imperial to metric and currency to decimal. Hard at the time, but better in the end (in my opinion), although I do have to admit that I still talk in feet and inches when talking timber. Some things are just too hard to kill I guess. It takes 2 generations to lose the previous indoctrination.

While we are at it lets throw in DIN vs K as well, just to stir the pot.

 

[Peter69_56]

What the hell is ketchup, dont get saucy with me young man!

 

[dmaziuk]

...

A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and U.S. customary units equal to one-eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, or 10 chains.Using the international definition of the inch as exactly 25.4 millimetres, one furlong is 201.168 metres. However, the United States does not uniformly use this conversion ratio. Older ratios are in use for surveying purposes in some states, leading to variations in the length of the furlong of about two parts per million, or 0.4 millimetres.

Ale firkin -- from the mid 15th century until 1688 the ale firkin was defined as 8 ale or beer gallons (36.97 l). In 1688 the ale firkin was redefined to be 81⁄2 ale or beer gallons (39.28 l). In 1803 ale firkin was again redefined to be 9 ale or beer gallons (41.59 l), equivalent to the beer firkin.
Beer firkin -- from the mid 15th century until 1824 the beer firkin was defined as 9 ale or beer gallons.
Imperial beer or ale firkin --the beer or ale firkin was redefined to be 9 imperial gallons in 1824. It is therefore exactly 40.91481 litres or approximately 1.445 cubic feet.

One microfortnight is equal to 1.2096 seconds.

And last but not least,

a "Hand" is a unit of measure equal to 4 inches, used to measure the height of a horse at the highest point of the withers. The number of whole hands is properly followed by a period, then the remaining height in inches.

HTH, HAND

 

[The Chairman]

@Storker But that's the point. If I start with a tank measured in cf at a certain PSI, then I've got to convert it to use it. It's why I dive imperial on imperial tanks and metric on metric tanks. My kitchen has several imperial measuring devices and few metric ones. Why? All of the recipes I find are in imperial. It makes no sense to convert the recipes to metric when I would then have to convert my measuring devices to metric as well. In the end, my brownies come out just as nice, so what's the real benefit of dumbing down to use metric?

 

[agilis]

Its getting the feel and your head around it that's hard. Like when we changed from Pound, shillings and pence, to Dollars. First it was hard, but then you wonder why you used the original out dated system to begin with.

I simply couldn't think of going back to feet and inches and partial inches for measuring now.

However I do understand the argument that you have been trained with what you use, and its sure hard to change.

I am however glad we were forced by the government to change from imperial to metric and currency to decimal. Hard at the time, but better in the end (in my opinion), although I do have to admit that I still talk in feet and inches when talking timber. Some things are just too hard to kill I guess. It takes 2 generations to lose the previous indoctrination.

While we are at it lets throw in DIN vs K as well, just to stir the pot.

In Jamaica they still use rods and chains as units of measurement. I learned to use such terms when I lived in a small fishing village there for more than a year. I suppose that was a kind of devolution, but I'm still really fond of describing the number of chains between here and there for purely aesthetic reasons.

I can remember once, while teaching a class, answering a question from a student about where in the dining hall a certain room was located. I used chains to specify the location, and elicited a great deal of laughter and applause from the few West Indian students in the class.

 

[Storker]

Storker, c'mon, give us a break. Most of us get it

I know. It was intended as a joke.

 

[agilis]

And last but not least,

HTH, HAND

Microfortnight is a new one for me. Thank you. I will certainly use it.

 

[Storker]

that's the point. If I start with a tank measured in cf at a certain PSI, then I've got to convert it to use it. It's why I dive imperial on imperial tanks and metric on metric tanks. My kitchen has several imperial measuring devices and few metric ones. Why? All of the recipes I find are in imperial. It makes no sense to convert the recipes to metric when I would then have to convert my measuring devices to metric as well. In the end, my brownies come out just as nice, so what's the real benefit of dumbing down to use metric?

I have exactly zero imperial measuring devices. I can relate to your cups (1 cup = 2.5 dL), but those ounces really suck. It doesn't exactly help that that ounce can be either a volumetric unit or a mass unit.